The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Many smartphone or tablet owners have done it, whether we have kids of our own or not: handed our devices over to a youngster that we’re tasked with entertaining. Now Android users can lock kids and other guests out of accessing their real wallets with in-game currency purchases.

The trouble is that children (or, heck, adults) who don’t understand the difference between in-game currency and real-world cash, leading to infamous stories in the annals of consumer reporting like the 8-year-old who spent more than a thousand bucks on Smurfberries.

Fortunately, Google is here to save us all. Over the weekend, a new version of the Google Play Store app came out that provides a fix for this problem by providing an option to require your password for every in-app purchase. It’s probably a good idea to update the app and turn the option on right now, before you even think about pulling up Angry Birds and handing the phone to your niece.